Thapelo

 

A young man who touched my heart, Mr. Thapelo Mokokoaane

As a teacher, I always thought that it is my responsibility to shape young minds, and that in many way is a challenge, a very tough one indeed. A wrong step by a teacher could destroy a young mind and his/her future for ever!

I would not say that I was 100% successful as a teacher. Many human beings had an impact on shaping my career. There are some students too had an impact on me though some also claim that they are influenced by my way of interacting with them.

Thapelo is very close to me in many ways. In 2001, he got admission at Cenez High in Form A, a young fragile boy from humble background. He was not popular by then, just like any other young boys who was willing please his teachers by running all errands, such students become favourites of many teachers indeed. We enjoyed this! He completed the first year at school unnoticed, but soon became popular among the staff due to his obedient etiquettes. When he was in Form B, he was familiar as an efficient mathematic student. He got a good pass in Form C and in Form E, secured a smooth admission at NUL. For me he was another Cenezian. He was the head boy, and monitored the students efficiently. He seemed to have the correct kind of ambition and capacity to meet his dreams.

In 2012, he started working at Cenez High School as a teacher. Since then, he became a strong pillar for Cenez. He is an all-rounder, the admin could load him with many tasks, and he will do this in perfection. He is short-tempered though reserved, but he attends to the assigned tasks categorically and obediently. His pupils produced remarkable academic results. Assign him any task, and I could sleep peacefully. I was extremely confident that he will do as per the expectations, he became my left and right hand. He helped me coordinating many activities. In all the capacity building programs and research activities that I conducted, Thapelo became a key player by communicating with teachers and gathering relevant information to shape our programmes to success. In these activities, he would record the events and sort documents in order. He is always busy and active with little complaints if any! His contributions for the smooth running of the educational activities that I ran since 2012 were fruitful and remarkable.

Linda (Dr. Linda Wang, Durban University, UK) during her visit to Lesotho watched him working day and night, recording activities and helping many participants moving without showing fatigue. She promised to train him on his clerical talents during her next visit. He was inevitable in all these capacity building activities and became popular among the teachers who participated in our workshops.

He considered me as his father, and treated as one! He used to say that he learned a lot from me, I am glad if this is correct. Definitely he learned how to engage in data collection and how to interact with teachers. This skill could be attained by any one, but the manner in which he managed various tasks without complaining, not many could do! His life resembled mine because, as far as I know, he never gave up unless reached a dead-end! He worked hard and always tried to learn. Indeed, Thapelo is a student that a teacher would be proud. I am grateful that Thapelo allowed me to work with him.